


That Voices Never Share

by DragonThistle



Series: An Echo in the Wells of Silence [1]
Category: Eddsworld - All Media Types
Genre: Light Angst, Mentions of Character Death, Post The End, attempts at friendship, the start of the healing process
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-10
Updated: 2016-09-10
Packaged: 2018-08-14 06:02:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8001220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonThistle/pseuds/DragonThistle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a harsh reminder that his life isn't the only one that was ripped apart that day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That Voices Never Share

**Author's Note:**

> Woke up feeling bad so I wrote this. It turned out longer than I meant it to. It’s not the ship but you can see it that way if you want, I don’t mind.

Edd goes back to the black crater roped off by police tape only once after they’ve managed to scrape together what pieces of their life they could find.

He hadn’t intended to come here on his way back from a small grocery run. His mind had been wandering, his thoughts slick and slippery and tripping over themselves as he tried to focus on something, anything. His feet had carried him on a familiar path until he’d taken a breath and the smell of old burnt things seared the back of his throat. He freezes, standing on the sidewalk facing the remains of something personal and important and now gone forever.

His gut twists and he tastes bile, swallows it down, hates how hard this hits him. He almost misses the fact that he’s not alone.

Eduardo is sitting a few steps away, cross-legged in the middle of the walk, staring blankly at the caved remains of another ruined life. He’s slouched over, hands loose in his lap, eyes unfocused and distant. Six people had lost everything that day. Only five of them have been left with the pieces.

The police tape sways in a light breeze.

“Hey.” Edd finds himself standing beside the man, looking down at him. He searches for that old, familiar, smoldering dislike that had sat so heavy between them for so many years. He can’t find it. Maybe it’s for the best.

“Go away, loser.” Eduardo sounds hollowed out. Someone’s come along and grabbed everything inside him and wrenched it out, grinding it into the pavement. Edd knows who that someone was.

“You shouldn’t sit out on the sidewalk, it’s getting cold.” The words fall out almost of their own volition. Edd wonders why he cares.

“Why do you care?” The man on the sidewalk spits and there’s a trickle of venom in his voice now, “Leave me alone.”

“You should get out of the cold—

“I said GO AWAY!” Eduardo erupts to his feet, whirling around to clench shaking fingers into Edd’s sweater, “LEAVE ME ALONE YOU HALF-ASSED SON OF A BITCH!”

Edd flinches, squeezing his eyes shut and turning his head away. He’s expecting a punch, he’s expecting to get thrown, he’s expecting Eduardo to resort to the physical blows he always takes when words fail him. Edd braces for it and it never comes. Fingers release his hoodie and there’s a shuffle of shoes across the cement walk. Edd cracks an eye open.

Eduardo is staring at the shell of a place that used to be a home.

It takes a good minute before Edd finds the courage to speak again,

“Eduardo…I…I know this probably doesn’t mean much but I wanted to apologize to you.” The only response he gets is a tightened jaw and a firm set of shoulders, “If I had listened to Tom, none of this would have happened. I never meant for anyone to get hurt. You don’t…have to forgive me, I really don’t expect you to. But I wanted to say it. I’m sorry.”

“’S not your fault, stupid.” A half hearted attempt at name calling, just as tired and empty as his words before, “You didn’t launch the rocket.”

“I let T—him back into the house.”

“You didn’t tell him to attack us.”

“I let him in. I ignored Tom and I let him back in.”

“You didn’t blow up our—the house.”

“But I—“

“You didn’t tell Jon you wished he was dead.”

The glacier of silence that crashes between them is so cold it sends a sickening chill into Edd’s stomach. He doesn’t realize he’s dropped the groceries until the six pack clatters noisily to the ground. Edd stares at the back of Eduardo’s neck. Eduardo seems to have forgotten how to breathe. A car drives by. No one moves.

Edd opens his mouth, closes it, opens it again, can’t find his voice and closes it once more.

The first colorful leaves of autumn drift across the street and Edd is suddenly aware of how long their shadows are getting. He clears his throat,

“Where’s Mark?”

“Gone.” Eduardo says to the ruined building, “Left. Hell if I know. Didn’t stick around long after the—after.”

Edd remembers vividly the sight of Mark’s vacant stare, fixated on the shiny, lacquered coffin. The memory brings back the stench of alcohol—Tom, drunk off his ass, unwilling to handle the emotional backlash—and the wretched sound of choking sobs. His eyes sting and he sucks in a breath, blinking rapidly, looks away from the wreckage. This is a bad place to be.

Words slip hesitantly off his tongue, sliding loose on the sour taste everything has left him with, “Do you…do you want to come over to my place? I got beer. And, uh, pasta. We can watch some movies or something.”

Eduardo finally looks at him. There are dark rings around his eyes, greasy scruff across his face, his back slouched and heavy with a weight he shouldn’t be carrying. Edd understands, Edd’s been carrying a weight too. But he’s had other people to help with the load. No one should carry this weight alone.

“We hate each other.” Says the man that used to be his neighbor. It sounds like an excuse.

Edd shrugs, bends down to retrieve his fallen groceries. He’s pleased to see none of the beer bottles aren't broken, “I think it’s kind of silly to keep that up, don’t you? There’s too many…holes, I guess. I don’t really want to fill them with anger and bullshit.” He meets Eduardo’s gaze, hopes the other man sees just how similar things are for them both, “Besides, Eduardo…I’m tired. I’m tired of our stupid rivalry and name calling and I am just…tired. I don’t want to fight anymore. You can still hate me, I guess. I probably deserve it. But I’m not going to fight with you anymore.” He shifts his weight from one foot to the other and raises the six pack,

“Now, you want some beer or not?”

It’s a silent contemplation. A minute and an eternity pass before Eduardo responds,

“Whatever. I’ll drink your cheap ass beer.” The hollowness is still there, deep and dark and full of pain. It will be a long time before it fills in. But there’s a smirk ghosting over his face and that’s enough for Edd.

“Come on, then. It’s not a far walk. Oh, and Tom will probably drop in; I think he can sense when there’s alcohol within in a five foot radius of him.”

“Tom…that’s the one with the freaky…” Eduardo gestures to his eyes as he falls into step next to Edd.

“Yeah.”

“Why are the hell are they like that?”

Edd snorts, a shaky, breathy noise, and shakes his head, “Dunno. He won’t tell.”

Eduardo grunts and shoves his hands into his pockets. He smells like cigarettes and the beginnings to unkept hygiene, his hair matted, his clothes wrinkled. Edd distantly thinks that Matt can probably get the guy to clean up. Matt always gets Tom to clean up when he’s had a night of drunken fits and broken rage. Lately those nights have been more and more frequent.

Edd sniffs, trying to suck up the tears that want to seep out.

“M’ not gonna laugh at you.” Eduardo’s voice is a dull murmur and his head is turned away, watching the lines on the road as they walk by them.

“Maybe later.” Edd replies and his voice isn’t shaky.

The hall of the building is quiet and Edd’s apartment smells like cat and sticky sweet soda. Ringo flicks his tail in a lazy greeting from his perch on the back of the couch. Eduardo shuffles awkwardly inside, looking around, not settling on anything. Edd lets him get comfortable, heading into the kitchen to put his groceries away. A thought occurs to him as he’s nudging several cans of cola aside to make room for the broccoli.

“You should hang out with us,” He says over his shoulder, “We don’t do as much crazy stuff as we used to, but…I dunno, we do horror movie marathons every Friday night. Could be fun.”

“Why would you want me around?”

Edd’s gut twists again at the bitter tone in Eduardo’s voice, “Well, ‘cause…because I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be alone. For any of us. I don’t like the idea of you just sitting around, Eduardo. We’re still—“ He chokes on the words for a moment, forces them out despite what consequences they might bring, “We’re still alive. We gotta keep going, even if it’s hard and tiring and hurts like a bitch, we have to keep going. It’s only right. It’s only fair.”

“You gonna feed me some bullshit about how Jon wouldn’t want me to waste my life mourning him or whatever?” Eduardo is leaning against the door frame of the kitchen, his arms crossed, his shoulders slack and his eyes tired.

“Nah,” Edd straightens up, closing the fridge door and bustling about to start making some dinner, “You’ve probably heard it enough. I’m just saying there’s a lot better things to do then mope. And moping takes a lot of energy anyway. Now there’s towels in the linen closet across from the bathroom and I’ll get you a change of clothes. Go take a shower, you friggin’ stink.”

“ _You_ stink.” Eduardo shoots back. But he heaves himself off the door frame and his footsteps vanish down the hall. A few minutes later, Edd hears the rumble of the pipes and then the hissing stream of the shower turning on.

Edd flips the burner on the stove and settles back against the counter to wait for the water to boil. It’s Wednesday. He wonders if Eduardo likes superhero television shows.


End file.
